


Warm Ice

by Ariss_Tenoh



Category: Coldfire Trilogy - C. S. Friedman
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-13
Updated: 2014-09-13
Packaged: 2018-02-17 05:35:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2298410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ariss_Tenoh/pseuds/Ariss_Tenoh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cold is a relative term.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Warm Ice

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted July 2nd 2006. Set after Crown of Shadows.

Damien waited. If he had learned anything travelling with the Hunter, it was the importance of patience.

 

Though he had to admit he wasn't as good at it as he'd like.

 

* * *

 

Time passed in a languid manner here. No sun to light the land, the moons only added a silver touch to the blue surroundings of winter ice.

 

He had headed north after the Church's men had burned the Forest that night, taking with him only what he needed to survive.

 

That, and one other thing.

 

* * *

 

He waited. It can't be long now.

 

His eyes gazed at the ice pillar that grew as though it had a will of its own.

 

* * *

 

The cavern he'd searched for had to be very specific. No sunlight, no fault lines for the earth fae to surge through unchecked, and no dark fae tainted by the deaths that had occured underground the last time he'd come to the rakhlands.

 

He really hadn't thought he'd ever come to the rakhlands again.

 

_Never say never_ , the wry thought told him.

 

He'd been conducting too many silent conversations in his head over the past year.

 

Some might say he was mad.....

 

* * *

 

The sword plunged into the earth had begun to _grow_. Slowly, yet surely. A little bit more with every passing day. Blue flames solidifying into blue ice that shimmered with a strange light. An almost sentient light.

 

It reminded Damien of the brother priest in charge of maintaining the Church's gardens back home. It was a losing battle, with dry soil and not enough water, but the elderly brother priest would smile and say the pleasure was in waiting and watching the plants slowly grow and beat the odds.

 

Damien shook his head, alone in the cavern, he was a bad gardner. Healing, not creating, was his forte.....

 

* * *

 

He waited.

 

It won't be long now.

 

* * *

 

The ice pillar was high enough to nearly touch the cavern's ceiling. The sword at its base had dissolved, strands of metallic grey spread from the base and circled the ice pillar like a silken web protecting a spider's domain.

 

Damien placed one hand against the ice. It leeched the warmth out of his hand till he felt nothing. Much like he'd been feeling since that night when his world burned away....

 

* * *

 

_crack...._

 

Damien woke abruptly from his sleep, throwing his heavy blankets to one side.

 

The cracks in the ice pillar spread up, down, and diagonally so fast he barely had time to grasp his sword and stand in front of the pillar he'd been guarding for so long.

 

_cra~aaaaaack...._

 

There was a last resounding noise that echoed around the cavern's walls, and the pillar shattered completely. A flash of grey eyes, and a body fell forward into Damien's waiting arms.

 

He tightened his hold on the cold body, afraid to look at its face. Golden hair spilled over Damien's hand and across the iced earth like a matrix of frozen sunlight.

 

There was a warm breath at his neck and words he strained to hear.

 

"You're an idiot, Vryce." They were not so much words spoken as a gust of indrawn air against his skin.

 

Damien smiled, slow and sweet like the summer sun peeking from behind winter clouds. Glad the one in his arms couldn't see his expression.

 

"So you've told me."

 

He eased himself down on the ground, reaching for a blanket to wrap around the reborn flesh and blood of Gerald Tarrant. The weight heavy and comforting against him.

 

_Cold is a relative term...._ Damien thought and closed his eyes.

 

His wait was over.

 

~ End ~


End file.
